Questions About Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

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Answered Questions (4)

The extractive and inclusive economic policy in the book is very convincing that the prosperity of a nation depends on policy choice (extractive or inclusive) of the elites to determine a rich and misery of that nation. I'm not quite understand how to say about the middle income countries.?

Jorge It depends, there are middle income economies like Chile or Brazil that have inclusive institutions, maybe you can call them "in transition". But you …moreIt depends, there are middle income economies like Chile or Brazil that have inclusive institutions, maybe you can call them "in transition". But you also have middle income economies like Colombia, that lacks this kind of institutions, so it depends in each case.(less)

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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)

Kimball This question contains no spoilers. But yes, Ahmad is right.

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KARL, IS THAT YOU? I have not read the book yet. I was just browsing the reviews to see if I read the book. I am pretty surprised by how Marxist it all sounds. Inclusive economic institutions? Elites exploiting the masses? Historical determinism? Does this sound a lot like "Marxism without capitalism" or is it me?

Lalit Kumar This book is not a fan of Communism at all. In contrast, it has criticised Stalin, Mao in a crude manner. China was responsible for Black plague, I go…moreThis book is not a fan of Communism at all. In contrast, it has criticised Stalin, Mao in a crude manner. China was responsible for Black plague, I got to know about that in this book. Elites exploiting the masses is a reality even today. And the same doesn't happen in capitalist economies exclusively. China is a so called communist country but their population lives in an extremely exploitative atmosphere. The work culture is capitalist. Companies are capitalist. China is a bizarre country in itself. Book is not that great when it comes to delving into the topic. It has only touched upon all the topic and left it to conclude by the reader. (less)

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INDIA Where does India fit into the Equation? When the authors have dedicated over 100 pages to explain about China (1/6 of world population and the only surviving communist economy albeit profitable for now) So why haven't the authors taken time to read about India (1/6 of world population and the largest democracy) Does India not deserve a few pages?